Soul of Thunder, Heart of Flame
by Nimbirosa
Summary: Unforeseen circumstances delayed Metallia's return by a year. Meanwhile, a young man walks Usagi's dreams and whispers in her ear the teachings of ages. Shortly after Usagi turned fifteen, she met him, but the circumstances were hardly desirable. MoonMask
1. The True Beginning of Our End

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**A/N:This is a Sailor Moon and Harry Potter crossover. I'm sorry I couldn't put that in the summary, but it was the best one thus far and I didn't want to delete anything from it. For another, it _will _be Usagi/Mamoru. No Usagi/Harry here.  
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**Right, this is my first crossover, so I'm warning you guys now. Also, I am, to put it bluntly, screwing with the entire storyline. If you're a canon!Sailor Moon/Harry Potter fan, turn back _now_. Also, I'm sorry for putting this in the Sailor Moon section, but the Sailor Moon Crossovers keeps spitting it back out. Apologies in advance. **

**That's it, and please review! **

**This chapter is dedicated to Wren Truesong, my favourite Sailor Moon fan and SM-nitpicker. Welcome to the beta gang.**

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**Soul of Fire, Heart of Ice**

**Chapter One **

**'The True Beginning of Our End'**

_Usagi blinked blearily at the ebon-haired young man across from her. He winked a roguish green eye before reverting to his sterner persona, that of her Weaponsmaster. "Focus!" he barked, tapping her none-too-gently on the head with the butt of the globed staff he carried. _

_She forced weary muscles to lift her own weapon in a parry of his next attack. "Harry, please, I don't think I can do any more today…"_

"_You'll do more if I say so, Usa." He eyed her with no small disappointment even as he scored a hit in her left side, and before she could even begin to block him again, another on her collarbone. "I am here to train you, not only in skill and power, but in endurance and stoicism. _Focus_!"_

_Anger's dragon uncoiled ominously somewhere in the regions of her lower gut. "Harry –" she was cut off abruptly as he struck._

_A sharp pain to her thigh –_

_Another to her jaw –_

_And a blow to her temple that made her see stars swimming hazily in darkness._

_The dragon reared fully in pained rage, and roared._

_Usagi found deep reserves of strength in her fury. She was tired, she was hurting, and both added to her ferocity._

_Harry's laugh of delight only enraged her further, as did the way he carelessly and fluidly block each lunge, blow and sweep she aimed at him. "Focus, Tsukino, focus! Direct your anger in a more productive manner; you're simply wasting energy right now." He dodged a swipe aimed at his neck and settled into an easy, defensive rhythm. "Don't forget what I've taught you! Be cool, be calm, be calculating. That is the way of the warrior!"_

_Slowly, her movements lost the jerky, forced timbre and flowed from one pattern into another with the casual grace of an expert. Harry's smile was approving, and it stayed that way as he locked their weapons together. Usagi held back her flinch; she knew she had lost. _

_If she held onto her weapon, he would either yank it out of her grip or use her grip on it to throw her over his shoulder. If she let go of it and attempted to escape or press an offensive, he'd trap her with magic or use his frighteningly quick reflexes to disable her._

_Still, it was worth a try. _

_Letting go of her trapped weapon, she spun around, her leg sweeping beneath him a split second after he jumped, somersaulting over her head and landing behind her, weaving a dome of power as he span through the air. The power solidified within heartbeats, a crystalline substance taking its place and effectively trapping his student._

_Harry turned to his enraged pupil, who glowered steadily at him, beating little fists against her prison. "Feh! Why I even bother to try and beat you, Harry, I'll never know. And using your magic is cheating."_

_The grin died from the nineteen-year-old's face. "In a life or death situation, nothing is classified as 'cheating', little rabbit. It's all about staying alive. Harm will come to one or the other either way."_

"_Point taken. Still, I'm tired. I'm supposed to be using my sleep as a way to recuperate from the aches and pains of the previous day, Mister Wizard – it's no wonder I always wake up late now."_

"_Your destiny does not allow luxury, Tsukino Usagi, just as mine didn't."_

"_Yeah, well, your destiny's over."_

"_And yours is just beginning."_

_Usagi sighed. She really didn't know the hows or the whys. One night a couple of months back, Harry had simply appeared in her dreams and attacked her. After reaming her thoroughly for being relaxed while she was _dreaming_, he relented and began to train her. For what destiny, she did not know, because he told her nothing save that he was real only in his universe, or reality. Apparently, someone who guarded the Gateways had charged him with teaching her the Warrior's ways._

_Her warrior master was strange to her in many ways, one of which was the brand of magic he wielded. His people used a wand to channel their magicks, although he himself had long surpassed that stage, just as he had overcome what he had been destined for._

_Usagi accepted the waterskin he held to her and drank deeply, studying her mentor. He had a kind heart, and a pure soul, that much she knew. He was also…well, gorgeous. His eyes were the most beautiful, crystalline green she'd ever seen, and long, dark lashes framed them. His hair was jet-black and endearingly untameable, and he was tall, although leanly built. His strength lay within his speed and endurance, although she knew few men that would dare go up against him. High cheekbones and a straight nose hinted of aristocratic origin while bronze skin and callused palms contradicted the claim in question._

"_Say Harry, do you have a girlfriend?" Usagi cringed at how it sounded even as the older boy turned amused green eyes on her. Despite their purely platonic relationship, she felt her heart skip a beat._

"_Why do you ask, Usa-chan?" He dropped his trademark 'unfeeling guy who beats the crap out of little girls for their own good' persona for the first time in hours as his lips quirked. "See something you like?" He pretended to flex his muscles, and Usagi couldn't help but laugh._

"_As if I'd ever be interested in a horrible, scrawny thing like you," she retorted. "Always bellowing about this 'Constant Vigilance' and giving me the stink-eye when I don't jump when told."_

"_You deserve it, you lazy-boned tart."_

_Usagi made a noise of strangled outrage. "Did you just call me a slut?" _

"…_Erm, no?"_

"_Damn you, Potter."_

"_Language, Tsukino. And no, I don't have a girlfriend." Usagi blinked, surprised despite the satisfied warmth that filled her to the brim. _

"_You don't?"_

"_You heard me the first time round. No, I don't, and I don't want one, either." He sounded uncharacteristically bitter. Harry was moody, sarcastic and harsh, but bitterness was not something she'd seen from him very much._

"_Why not? You seem kinda lonely sometimes." Usagi knew it was the wrong thing to say almost as soon as the words were out of her mouth. He stood up abruptly. _

"_You've improved, Usagi. Remember, you always have that last-ditch reserve. Next time, we're going to try and tap into that without you getting so riled that your emotions rule you. Sleep now, Usagi." He turned to go and paused, various expressions flitting over his face. _

"_Harry?" she probed._

_He squared his shoulders and continued on his way. "I'll be seeing you soon then, Usa-chan."_

_As he walked off into Dreams, she felt her lost energy replenish itself, like it always did. This time, however, she did not let her consciousness fade like it usually did after her training sessions with the otherworldly wizard-teen. Instead, she stood there for an undeterminable amount of time, contemplating Harry Potter, the nineteen-year-old that had been her mentor in physical training as well as the boy who she had come to see as a brother._

"_Harry…"_

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_

Usagi dashed down the sidewalk, a piece of toast clutched in her hand, her lunchbox in the other and curses blistering the air. "I'M GONNA BE LAAAAAAAAATE!" she wailed, her voice splitting the peaceful morning air. Pedestrians leapt out of the way of the crazed blonde and stared after her, their eyes disbelieving as she motored past them at a speed that should be illegal on curbs.

Usagi was mortified. She had overslept, something that seldom happened, and as a result was late to her first day at a new school. She had spent hours wandering the dream world, looking for her friend. Harry, however, was nowhere to be found, and it had been that way for nine days. Usually, he visited her every day, and if not, at least every second one. His silence unnerved the blonde, and she was nearly out of her mind with worry. Stuffing the toast in her mouth as she ran, she made it to the school in record time, never once noticing the ebon-haired man trailing her.

As she motored through the front gates of Juuban Junior High, he chuckled deeply, emerald eyes dancing in amusement. "Usa, you really are a sweetheart. I've got to work on your awareness skills, though." He frowned slightly.

"She's just a teenager!" A bossy voice interrupted him and he rolled his eyes at a sleek black cat sitting regally beside him.

"She may be a teenager, milady Luna, but she has a destiny. It's my job to train her, and yours to counsel her." The man's tone was sarcastic and scathing. "Sentimentality is all very nice, but it's not going to help her on the battlefield.

"Constant paranoia and constantly getting into fights isn't going to help much, either, Harry Potter!" The cat's tone was sharp.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Since when did you become my mother?" he asked dryly, feeling a familiar, somewhat dull pang in the region of his heart as he did so. "Besides, fighting is fun."

Luna gave him a Look. "Listen to yourself," she sniffed. "'Fighting is fun', he says."

"Yes, 'fighting is fun', I said." Harry shrugged. "Well, now that you put it that way, a lot of things are fun. Fighting, feeding and fuc –"

"HARRY JAMES POTTER!"

He simply smirked.

"Why on earth were you given this mission, anyway?" she asked the air irritably. "Find the senshi, assemble the seven rainbow crystals, and when the Ginzuishou appears, find the Princess."

"Serenity-hime will reveal herself when the Ginzuishou appears; it's part of her heritage, and she's not going to give it up without a fight."

"Great Mother! Is that all you think about? Fight, fight, fight. The princess is gentle, demure, graceful. She is not one of the senshi; she does not fight!"

Harry merely rolled his eyes. "She must be a wimp, then. Remind me: why are we looking for her again?"

Luna'd had enough, and Harry's hiss of startled pain confirmed that the way she'd dug her claws into his leg was punishment enough for his absentmindedly spoken words. "She is the key to our Utopia!" she spat. "She will remake paradise and grant us all the ecstasy of freedom from tainted thoughts, touches, ideals!"

Harry couldn't resist. "Ah, I never knew you liked it that way."

It took Luna a few moments to catch the hidden meaning in the deceptively innocent words.

"HENTAI!"

* * *

Furuhata Motoki looked up as the automatic doors to the Crown Arcade slid open, pausing his wiping down the counter. He didn't know why he did; customers came in all the time. Something, though, had compelled him to look up. 

A woman a little younger than Motoki himself, seventeen or so, paused in the entrance. Flashing cinnamon eyes were set in a heart-shaped face, the features delicate and strangely regal. There was strength in that face, enhancing its charisma and beauty. The stranger was slender, willowy, and possessed a glorious mane of fiery hair that tinted every shade of golden-auburn-autumn-flame there was, and tumbled down past her back. Her attire was simple, a pale yellow sundress that floated about her frame. He noted with some surprise that an elbow-length white glove covered her left hand. Although it was mid-September, the weather was still unusually warm, and the single glove mystified him.

Then she smiled, and Motoki had to remind himself to breathe. She crossed the room and stood before him, brushing a flame-hued curl out of her eyes. They were flecked with amber, the floored blond registered belatedly.

"Excuse me, sir, but have you seen a man hereabouts?" She gestured as she spoke, swift, graceful movements. Her voice was sweet and low, with the tantalising trace of a foreign accent.

Motoki smiled kindly at her. "You're going to have to be a little more specific than that, Miss…?" A smile turned the corners of her lips up.

"My name is Ginevra. Ginevra Weasley, but my friends call me Ginny." She offered a hand to him, pale and delicate like the rest of her.

"Furuhata Motoki, Motoki to all." he responded. "Now, this man you're looking for?"

"He's tall, past six feet in height, with black hair and green eyes. Handsome, too, slender-ish strong build: you know the type."

Motoki nodded distractedly, absorbing what she had described. "Iie, I haven't seen someone like that. If I do, though, should I give him a message?"

Her next smile was dangerous; it was a tiger's lazy smile in a kitten's face, even as she turned away. "Tell him…tell him that his best friend's little sister is looking for him."

Motoki smiled cheerfully, a little unsettled by the darkness in the expression crossing her features. "Sure I'll tell him. Would you like to place an order?"

She shook her head as she slid gracefully off the stool. "No." She paused at the entrance again, the morning sun illuminating her figure, turning her hair to fire and enhancing her to the point of divinity. "Just tell Harry Potter I've come to kill him." Her voice floated to him clearly, and then she was gone.

Motoki blinked in disbelief before looking at the rag he'd been scrubbing the spotless counter with. He felt dizzy, suddenly, and buried his face in his hands.

A shadow fell across him, but he didn't look up. "Motoki, man, what's up with you?"

The blond shook his head and scrubbed at his eyes with his hands. "I…I don't know." He frowned at the quiet arcade, which was nearly empty due to it being a school and work day. The arcade manager sighed as his best friend, a Chiba Mamoru, slipped into the seat that the fire angel had only recently inhabited. The dark-haired seventeen-year-old looked at Motoki with some concern. Mamoru's dark blue eyes met the blond's green-gold ones.

Mamoru nodded and lapsed into silence. He never pressed anyone for answers, but played the waiting game. If they wanted to speak they would speak, and if they didn't want to they would when they were ready, which was why it didn't really surprise Mamoru when Motoki broke the silence a few minutes later as he slid a cup of steaming black coffee over to him.

"She was beautiful," his friend's whisper was reverent. "She was fire and golden and…" he shuddered, "dangerous."

Mamoru snorted softly. "You've got a girlfriend, Furuhata."

Motoki gave him the stink eye. "Nothing wrong with looking, Chiba I-have-girls-falling-at-my-feet-all-the-time-despite-my-ugly-green-jacket Mamoru."

It was the darker-haired man's turn to give the smirking blond a Look. "I'll have you know that I _like_ this jacket, okay?"

"More like _adore_ it," Motoki mocked his friend cheerfully, his sunny demeanour returning with a vengeance as he teased his friend. "I can count the number of times I've seen you without it on my fingers." He sobered quickly, though, and looked at the arcade entrance again, sighing. "She was kinda psycho, though. Said she was looking for someone and that she'd kill them."

Mamoru rolled his eyes, something the dignified college student didn't often do. "Rather blood-thirsty for your tastes, ne?"

"Shut up, baka. You'd be kinda freaked if a would-be-murderer walked into _your_ arcade without so much as a by-you-leave."

"You're the baka, baka." Mamoru shook his head in amusement. "Did it ever occur to you that she could be joking?"

Motoki shuddered, remembering the look in her eyes. Eyes that could be gentle and warm, as well as passionate and dangerous. "Iie, she was frightening, really."

Mamoru shrugged as he took a sip of his coffee. "Tell me." He listened patiently to the tale of the short encounter and chuckled when it was done. "You're worrying about nothing, Motoki."

"Maybe you're right, maybe I'm wrong." Motoki shrugged. "Still, she made my skin crawl when she smiled like that."

"Reika makes your skin crawl, too, and for different reasons, I'm sure." Mamoru drawled, referring to his friend's absent girlfriend.

Motoki didn't even look at the smirking man opposite him as he punched him good-naturedly in the shoulder. "Stop having ecchi thoughts about Reika, Chiba."

"Who, me?" They laughed as Mamoru drained his cup and stood. "I better get going now; there's a test on Biochemistry tomorrow that I want to study for."

"Come by again in the afternoon, Mamoru, you don't get out quite enough." The two exchanged the appropriate 'manly' goodbyes, clapping each other on the shoulders, and Mamoru left.

Motoki sighed. "Demo, she _was_ beautiful…."

* * *

Usagi sighed gustily as the bell rang, signalling the start of lunchtime. Class had been just so _boring_! She glanced down at her notes, which were cheerfully defiled with horrible depictions of butterflies, bunnies and hearts. Shuffling them irritably, the blonde began cramming them into her bag as quickly as she could. 

There was a very polite cough from behind her, and she whirled around, letting out a muffled squeak as she came nose to nose to the shy-looking bluenette who sat two seats over from her in the same row. The blue-haired girl looked rather flustered herself, almost thrusting a piece of lined paper at Usagi's face. "I believe this is yours, Tsukino-san."

Usagi forgot her startlement as she grimaced. "Call me Usagi, or Usagi-chan if you will, onegai. Mizuno Ami, is it?"

Ami nodded meekly, eyes that were a darker hue than her hair meeting the blonde's cerulean ones. Usagi smiled brightly. "Well, Ami-chan, I'm new here, and feeling kinda lost. Would you mind showing me the ropes of this gig?"

The other girl flushed slightly. "I'm afraid I'm new myself, and –"

"Say no more!" the blonde declared. "We shall get lost together, brave the crowds together, hide from teachers together!" She paused before chuckling. "I was only joking, by the way. Come on, I think I saw a nice place outside where we could eat." She blushed slightly, realising Ami hadn't spoken yet. "That is, if you don't mind."

Ami smiled tentatively. "Iie, it sounds wonderful."

Usagi took the proffered paper, which was covered in near-indecipherable scribbling about ionic bonds and covalent bonds and other such nonsense. Almost of its own accord, the hand holding the page turned it over, and Usagi blinked.

A beautifully crafted brooch was sketched in the right-hand top corner of the page. She knew it was a brooch, even though it was simply a heavily shaded circle bearing a crescent moon – its points turned skywards – on its lower half and a large gem resting within the crescent's curve. Four stones composed the points of the compass. Although the drawing was done in pencil, she knew instinctively the gems and their locations. "Northern ruby and southern sapphire, eastern emerald and western topaz," she murmured.

Ami cocked her head quizzically at her new friend. "I beg your pardon?"

Usagi shook her head forcefully. "Nothing," she said somewhat abruptly. She smiled apologetically at the bluenette. "Lunch calls," she laughed gaily, folding the piece of paper and shoving it into a side-pocket in her bag. Picking up her lunchbox, she skipped down the hall, Ami following in amused resignation. The blue-haired genius knew and comprehended many things, but one that she couldn't even begin to understand was how she felt that, armed with Usagi's friendship and their newfound camaraderie, she could take on the world, and how, without it…

Ami shuddered, and the pleasant September noonday suddenly felt a lot colder.

* * *

The two shared their lunches and spoke at great length about themselves. Usagi learned that Ami was an only child, that her mother was a doctor and that her father had left them both while she was very young. The bluenette had gone to a prestigious school in another neighbourhood, one that the Juuban Crossroads students had christened the 'Brain Farm'. For her, first impressions counted, and she was a very practical person. Science and logic played a large role in her life and views. She was not easily prejudiced, but as stated before, first impressions counted. Yes, her hair was natural, and she found the school fukus' short skirts embarrassing. 

Ami found that Usagi was a very layered person; she was ditzy and airheaded only to a point. Press her and you'd find the calculating mind behind the entire façade. Usagi's father was a reporter and her mother stayed at home. She had one younger sibling, an 'annoying' boy named Shingo. She and her brother had been home-schooled until this year. She was almost obsessed with video games, and Sailor V (an urban legend in London as well as the subject of much of her manga) was her idol. She admitted herself that she was lamentably clumsy. Her views of the short skirts were rather divided. They were useful in that they allowed free movement (should you be someone that didn't mind flashing the world when you took advantage of that fact) and annoying in that the boys' eyes seemed glued to the hems, just _waiting_…

Ami found herself laughing harder and more than she remembered doing, and finally voiced the question that she'd been itching to ask ever since she'd laid eyes on her new friend. "Tsukino-sa – erm, Usagi-chan?"

"Hai?"

"Why do you wear your hair like that?"

Usagi blushed furiously. "If you're going to give me a hard time about it –"

"Oh, _no_!" Ami spoke in dismay. Did Usagi really think she'd tease her about it? "Your hair is so long, smooth and golden. It's beautiful!"

Usagi ducked her head shyly. "You really think so?"

"Yes, I do," Ami reassured her.

The blonde reached up to feel her unique hairstyle; two neat buns with her ankle-length hair streaming from them in little ponytails. "I don't know." She scrunched her hair up, trying to remember. "I started wearing these when I was three or four – I think I remember dreaming about a beautiful lady dressed all in white and gold, and she had her hair like this. I know it makes me sound like some kind of wannabe, but it felt good to have it up like this, you know? Like it was my right."

Ami smiled softly. "Well, it _was_ your dream. For all we know, that beautiful lady could be you in the not-so-distant future."

Usagi laughed. "Me? No, too clumsy, too many gluttonous tendencies, too lazy –"

"And a heart of gold," Ami cut her off. "Don't put yourself down so, Usagi. All teens go through the clumsy stage. Obviously you are accustomed to eating a lot, yet you still have an admirable figure. Laziness _is_ a vice, but it's also a phase."

"Arigatou, Ami-chan, you are a love."

Ami felt somewhat strange. Never before had she spoken so strongly about something in the presence of someone her own age, or even older. She was shy by nature, she knew, and preferred to concede a point rather than make a debacle of herself trying to fight for it. With Usagi, however, she knew that this change was welcome. The two rose as the bell rang again, Usagi groaning. "Kami-sama, another two hours of Haruna-sensei droning on about geometry…somebody shoot me."

Ami laughed as Usagi linked arms exuberantly with her, marching her back indoors. "Ah, Ami-chan!"

"Hai?"

"I'm going to this arcade after school. It's called the Crown Arcade – do you want to come along?"

Ami bit her lip regretfully. "Gomen, I've got cram school after school today."

Usagi threw her hands up in mock-disgust. "Ah well, you can't win everything. C'mon, that was the warning bell. At least let me walk with you there? The Arcade's on the way."

Ami merely smiled. "Thank you."

* * *

Harry clicked his tongue impatiently as students poured out of the school, the last bell ringing exuberantly. He searched for a pair of golden buns, and gritted his teeth when he couldn't see them. "Morgana's Bane, where _is_ she?" 

The black cat in his arms merely stretched, yawning. "Growling and grumbling won't get her out here faster, Harry," she muttered rebelliously. "How in Selene's name did _you _get involved, anyway?"

His one-word answer froze the blood in her veins. "Pluto."

Digging her claws firmly into his bare arms, she turned to fix her red eyes balefully on his green ones. "Sailor Pluto? The Guardian of the Timegate?"

"That's the one," he drawled with an insolent wink before wincing as her claws dug in further. "Damnit! Watch those things, you mangy cat!"

Luna ignored his insult on her person in favour of more important matters. "There she is!"

* * *

Usagi and Ami ambled amiably down the crowded streets in an easy silence. Everything was going pretty well until they turned the corner and Usagi walked slap-bang into a hard chest. 

As she lay there on the curb, feeling little stars fluttering around her head, everything was snapped suddenly back into focus by a taunting, horribly familiar voice.

"Well, well, well…if it isn't the Odango Atama. How are you doing today, Odango? Knocked any poor pedestrians into the ways of speeding cars?"

Usagi winked surreptitiously at Ami and then responded in a way the baka least expected. "WAAAAAAAAAH! WHY ARE YOU SO MEAN TO ME, MAMORU-BAKA?" She sniffled for added effect and choked down a giggle as she felt tears well up in her eyes. Perfect. "I've just fallen on my butt and have probably broken my butt-bone and am hurting and all you can do is stand there and call me names and tease me. WAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Ami choked, trying desperately to quell her giggles, both at Usagi's 'crying' and the dumbfounded expression on the man's face. Kneeling beside her, Ami, patted her on the back soothingly, her blue hair falling forward to hide her grinning face. "There, there, Usagi-chan, ignore the mean man, now. How about we go get one of those nice, triple-fudge sundaes you've been telling me about?"

Usagi sniffled exaggeratedly and opened a teary blue eye. "Promise, Ami-chan?" She hiccoughed loudly.

Ami snorted loudly before she could stop herself, and, helping the 'distraught' blonde up from the pavement, they walked away from a bemused Chiba Mamoru.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Ami burst out laughing. "Butt-bone? There is no such thing as a butt-bone!"

"Hai, demo, he knows me as a complete simpleton," Usagi explained, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes.

"Speaking of which, how do you know him? He seems to be rather –"

"Mean? Oh, yes. We made a rather bad first impression on one another, I'm afraid."

_Usagi slouched down the sidewalk, kicking a flattened aluminium Pepsi can as she went. "Stupid Shingo," she muttered. "Him and his baka friends…" she sighed, kicking the can a little more enthusiastically. "Locking me out of the house because it's _funny_. I'll give them _funny_ when Mum and Dad get back. They'll let me in, and then I'll _show_ them…" She kicked the can hard, letting out an embarrassed exclamation as her right clog flew off and hit a guy wearing an ugly green jacket in the small of his back._

"_Ow!" The man rounded on her bad-temperedly. She noted absently that he was very handsome, and possessed untidy black hair and ocean-blue eyes. "Do you go around hoiking clogs at people all the time, Odango Atama?"_

_She forgot about his good looks and how to feel apologetic when he spoke. "The fact that I _accidentally_ kicked my shoe at you does not mean that you can insult my hair! And I am _not_ a dumpling head!"_

"_I beg to differ, little miss," he drawled with a condescending smirk. Ignoring her furious sputtering, he held up the offending shoe wear. "The heels on these things have got to be at least two inches thick! Are you trying to compensate for your being such a midget?"_

"_You _baka_! I was trying to apologise, you know."_

"_Can you really apologise for throwing a two-inch-heeled wooden clog at my back? I'm surprised I'm not paralysed from the waist down, really; these things are lethal."_

"I've been bumping into him ever since," Usagi finished wearily, eliciting a smile from the staid bluenette.

"I think it's pretty amusing, actually. Also –" she broke off, horrified. "Kami-sama! I forgot about cram-school! I'm going to be so late!"

"Not if you run, you won't," Usagi reassured her friend, breaking into a fast trot. "C'mon!" They ran on, unaware that they were being stalked by an aloof cat and grumbling man.

* * *

Usagi slowed down and waved at Ami as the bluenette ducked into the building. Sighing, she continued on her way to the Crown Arcade. Absorbed in her thoughts, she almost didn't notice the redhead until it was too late. 

Both of them taking one step to the side and one forward in the same direction, they ended up colliding anyway. The older girl managed to keep her balance with a series of graceful, dancing steps, but Usagi went sprawling for the second time in less than half an hour.

"Gomen nasai," she apologised politely. The stranger's delicate red lips turned upwards in a gentle smile.

"It is quite alright," the redhead shrugged gracefully, leaning forward and offering a slender, gloved hand. "Gomen, are you in a hurry?"

"Iie, are you?" The older girl was probably around eighteen or nineteen, and was almost ten inches taller than Usagi herself.

"I'm just exploring the area, actually. I hear there's a lovely mall roundabout here."

Not knowing why, but feeling compelled to do so, Usagi spoke. "I can take you there, if you like. Are you a tourist?"

The red lips smiled again. "You could say that."

Cerulean eyes met sparking cinnamon-amber. In that split-second, each felt the presence of a kindred spirit, and they smiled at each other. They were sisters before they even learned each others' names.

* * *

"_Shit_!" Harry's eyes were wide in disbelief as he peered at the schoolgirl and the 'tourist', both of whom were chatting amiably. 

"Potter, watch your language!" Luna reprimanded him sharply.

"But _she's_ there! How in the seven hells and skies did she manage to follow me?" '_How could she follow when she knows the peril she has willingly walked into?_'

"Why are you so concerned? Is she dangerous?" Luna was starting to get a little worried herself, now. If that woman could jeopardise their mission…

"'Dangerous'? Oh, _hell_ yeah, she's 'dangerous'! With a friggin', capital 'D'!" Harry raked a calloused hand through his untidy hair, making it stand up even further.

The cat was now nice and panicked. "How so?"

Harry was silent for a moment, and when he spoke again, his voice was cold. "Don't worry about it, Luna. Just forget it." '_She is my problem; I will handle her,_' he vowed silently. Tuning back into the spitting cat, he winced as her voice threatened to shatter his eardrum.

"HOW CAN I FORGET IT WHEN –" Harry shrugged off his jacket swiftly and bundled the cat into it, muffling her yowls.

"Baka," he hissed. "Do you want to screw things up? _Shut. Up_."

He took the cat's silence for acquiescence and let her free, dodging her retaliatory swipe with a grin. Turning back to the street, he found that Ginny and Usagi were gone.

The resulting curses that issued from the dark-haired man's mouth would have made Voldemort blush.

* * *

"Jadeite," a woman's voice snapped. 

A slender, blond man dressed in a nondescript grey uniform stepped forward and bowed deeply. "My Queen?"

"The wheel has been set in motion. You know your mission. Should you fail, you will suffer pain beyond imagination. Succeed, and the Shitennou will be honoured for millennia."

The blond did not look up from the marble floor. To look the Queen of the Dark Kingdom in the eye was a challenge to her status, and a challenge meant certain death. "I hear and obey," he said, wondering why the words he had spoken so many times before now felt sour in his mouth. Deciding not to dwell on it in his Queen's presence, he stood, bowed again, and left.

An auburn-haired man met Jadeite outside the hall, green eyes intense. "Her Majesty has finally asked it of us, has she not?"

Jadeite nodded curtly. "Hai," he replied, feeling the first giddy waves of excitement now that he was out from under the intense scrutiny and distant disdain of the Queen of Darkness. Controlling himself, he smiled coldly. "Should I succeed, Nephrite, our brotherhood will be cleansed of the taint!"

Nephrite's eyes were fierce. "And should you fail, the Shitennou will be disgraced for all eternity. Do not fail, Jadeite."

The blond smiled confidently at his brother. "No worries, brother." He summoned a fist-sized flame to his right palm. "Should any _obstacles _appear…" he tossed the conjured fire to his left hand and savagely squeezed it, causing the light to die abruptly. "They will meet the same fate as _that_."

Nephrite gave him a flat stare. "For the sake of our integrity and honour, Jadeite –"

"For the Shitennou," Jadeite tossed his head and laughed.

* * *

**A/N: Okay, people, just a reminder that you can find a list of the Japanese terms you may not have understood posted on my profile. It will be at the very bottom. Thank you for reading, and please review.**

**Cookies and hugs to the person who tells me where I got my chapter title from. /grins/

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	2. All that Glisters is not Gold

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A/N: Thank you everyone for your reviews! This chapter is dedicated to EightofSwords, who I love worship, and Wren Truesong, whom I love dearly. No one got the quote from last time? The title's another quote, and they're both written by the same person. /grins/ Can anyone tell me who it is? Yes, it's supposed to be 'glisters', not 'glistens'.**

**Anyway, thanks for your tolerance, and I'm sorry it took me so long to write this much. Please review!

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**Soul of Fire, Heart of Ice**

**Chapter Two**

'**All that Glisters is not Gold'**

Usagi checked her watch, frowning in consternation. "It's nearly four, and I have to be home by five. Do you mind if we took the shortcut through the park?"

Her companion's eyes lit up. "Oh _yes_! I hear the gardens there are lovely."

Usagi grinned cheerfully, steering her new friend to the left. "Hai, the rose ones are the prettiest."

Ginny laughed softly. "I'm more of a lily, lavender and lilac person, myself," she commented. "Scents _and_ beauty –"

"But nothing beats the rose," Usagi protested. "They are, after all, the symbol of love."

Her companion smiled bitterly. "Love," Ginny said with a cynical twist of her red mouth, "is an illusion," the older girl sighed, "but oh, such a beautiful one," she murmured.

"Ginevra-san, how could you say such a thing?" Usagi was genuinely concerned. "Love sustains and nurtures. It makes –"

"– and breaks," Ginny finished with a snort. Her eyes gentled when they met the blonde's sad ones. "Your soul is beautiful, and your admirable ability to open your heart to those around you is nothing short of incredible." A white-gloved hand reached up to push a few errant red locks away from a suddenly drawn and tired face. "I hope you will never lose that capacity, Usagi."

Not knowing how to reply to that, the blonde merely nodded sombrely and they continued their walk in silence.

* * *

Harry was almost frantic. Luna at his heels, he ploughed through the busy sidewalk, keen green eyes searching desperately for either Usagi's unique hairstyle or Ginny's flaming tresses. Cursing fluently and ignoring Luna's reproachful gaze, he stopped abruptly as a wave of…he didn't know what it was, but he was going to find out what had just caused the tingle warning him that all was not as it should be. 

Luna clawed at his pant leg. "The park," she hissed, just loud enough for him to hear. "The Dark Kingdom – traces of their energy – it's in the park! The girl can wait, but it's best to eliminate the threat first. That way, everyone will be safe."

Nodding sharply, he scooped the startled cat into his arms. Apparating to the other side of the road, he materialised running. "I was hoping to make contact with the Prince first. Without him, I may not draw on the Earth's power."

"You command lightning, don't you?" She nodded at the black leather and silver gauntlet he wore over his left hand.

He glared, shifting the gauntleted hand so that it was out of sight. "Yes, but Pluto told me that everything here belongs to Prince Endymion – it's not my world, so I have no right to control any of its power." He sighed. "Not without paying a price."

"Prince Endymion…I know that name."

"You should. He was Serenity-hime's betrothed and beloved in the Silver Millennium." He felt the cat stiffen in his arms. "What?"

Luna bared her teeth. "His seduction of her brought about the fall of our Millennium and the death of billions."

Harry sighed: he hated being the reasonable one. "I hear he loved her very much. You admitted that you don't have all your memories, so just keep an open mind for now." He slowed to a brisk walk, looking around carefully. "I have no way of sensing this kind of energy. Magic, I can do, but auras and such, I can't; Ginny was always better at them, provided she had something to track." He shot a wry look at the black feline. "So…a helping hand would be nice."

Luna frowned, the crescent moon on her brow glowing slightly. "I can't say…just try and look around, because I can't elaborate further."

Harry's expression was wry. "Detailed, much?"

Luna swiped a paw at him. "Less talk, more run."

"Of course, Milady," he said sardonically, and he continued to walk for a few more moments, simply for the sake of being contrary.

* * *

Usagi inhaled deeply. "This is it: the rose gardens." She smiled slightly at a silent Ginny. "The city's pride and joy." 

"It is beautiful," Ginny smiled, looking around. Couples and a few families occupied the benches, and a pond filled with waterfowl boasted a few groups feeding the ducks that swam there. However, it was the roses themselves that caused her to draw her breath in sharply. Roses upon roses of every breed and variety grew there. From wine to white, from hedges to climbers, from bouquet to dwarf: they had them all. She sniffed delicately at the air. "Enchanting aroma," she commented distantly.

Usagi grinned. "Isn't it?" she agreed, sighing. They closed their eyes for a while.

Ginny rose first and it was with regret. "Usagi-chan, you have to be back by five, remember? It's ten after four, so…"

Usagi nodded. "I –"

"KAIJUU!"

Ginny looked about sharply. "What?"

Usagi was equally bewildered. "It was coming from the pond area," she grabbed Ginny's hand and began to drag her away. "Which means we are going in the _opposite_ direction, because I'm not waiting around to find out whether or not there really is a monster, or just a bratty two-year-old."

To Usagi's surprise, Ginny shook her off and sprinted towards the shouts and screams. Biting her lip, the blonde debated on what to do. When the screams stopped, however, a chill ran up her spine. Fear froze her, but her resolve strengthened. How could she ever live with herself if Ginevra-san got hurt and she'd a chance to help?

A defiant shout split the eerie silence. Realising she'd been standing there for Kami knows how long, she ran in its direction, but not before tripping over a displaced flagstone. Getting up, a hot flush warming her cheeks and body, she bit her lip and continued on her way.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

* * *

Ginny slowed as she neared the pond edge, crouching low to the ground in an effort to make herself a smaller target. Cinnamon-amber eyes flashed, and Ginny raised her gloved hand, calling her power to her. As her mage's staff thudded squarely into the palm of her hand, Ginny prepared to draw upon the energy of her element when the slender redhead was swamped in a rage not her own and a fierce, almost contemptuous emotion as the very magic that was a part of her heritage rejected her. 

She was buffeted and bruised and her magic torn forcefully from her, mouth opened in a soundless keen of agony. Ginny suffered in forced silence as she was violated. Her magic, mind and soul cried out as they were raped over and over again.

**_Thou shalt not command us,_ **the entity whispered into her mind even as her body spasmed uncontrollably. **_We recognise thy heritage, daughter of Ignus, but our allegiance lies with our Prince and none other. Thou shalt be punished for thy meddling._** The voice sounded almost regretful as Ginny regained control of her voice.

She immediately began to scream.

As Ginny lay there, writhing in pain so intense she could barely breathe, she never saw the forgotten demon smirk and attack.

She never saw the black blur that blocked the missile with cold efficiency.

She felt the torture suddenly stop, and its sudden absence sent her spiralling into shock and unconsciousness.

She heard, her heart flipping weakly, Harry's – _her _Harry's – voice.

"Sleep now, love, and I'll wake you when I've kicked their asses," he murmured.

Smiling painfully, she slipped into darkness.

* * *

Feeling Ginny's awareness disappear from their link, but still feeling _her_, Harry spared a quick moment to check on her wellbeing. He winced at what he found. 

"You'll be feeling that tomorrow, lovey," he whispered, clenching his staff tightly as self-loathing filled him to the brim. He was so foolish to think he could have left and have her not follow him. If he had told her from the start, she wouldn't be in this…condition. Not only was her mind suffering from the unwelcome occupation of her 'visitor', the bond between her and her natural fire element had been brutally severed, and her soul was ailing. It would take her months before she could even sit up again, unless he somehow managed to locate Endymion and get him to heal her.

Taking care not to draw on his lightning heritage and elemental magic, he focused his magic on the emerald capping his long ironwood staff and watched as it morphed into a curved blade composed of the same jewel. A quick summoning charm and hasty transfiguration spell had a serviceable wooden shield reinforced with thick iron bands strapped to his arm.

Harry looked around for the – what was it Luna and Pluto had called them again? – youma and blinked in confusion as he spotted what appeared to be tightly-shut giant scallop shells lying scattered on the pathways around the pond, much like the one he had knocked away from Ginny earlier. Scanning the pond itself, he saw that the youma was sitting perched on a little island a couple of metres out.

The youma was in the form of what Muggles imagined merpeople to look like, save for the fact that this one was most _definitely _female. Its 'endowments' were very obvious. Mermaid-youma waved at him, giggling girlishly as she picked up a large conch. Harry tensed, bringing up the glaive. It was awkward handling it with a shield in the other hand, but he was a master at the staff and he was fighting defensively anyway. He watched semi-apprehensively as the youma brought the shell to her lips and _inhaled_ through it. Silver-grey streams of energy streamed towards it, disappearing into the youma.

Harry blinked again.

'_Well…that's something else,_' he thought. Transfiguring the shield into a low stone wall that hid Ginny, he took up a defensive stance in front of it. He would probably need both hands for this.

"Harry-oniisan?"

Harry blinked and stared into startled cerulean eyes. His peripheral vision registered a quick movement and he shoved Usagi out of the way with one hand before destroying the open scallop shell with a blast of pure magic using the other.

"Get down behind that wall," he said harshly, not looking at her, "and keep it down. Luna, you might want to give it to her now. It wasn't in the job description for me to win any battles for other people."

He could almost feel the weight of Usagi's hurt gaze as she crawled behind the four-foot-high granite wall, but paid it no heed as he blasted three more shells out of the air and deflected another two with his staff. Leaning on the crosspiece of his weapon, he took on an air of false nonchalance. "Who are you, and who sent you?" he called to the Mermaid-youma.

She was starting to get peeved at his careless attitude, and he could see it. "I am Mistaya, gem of waters. I shall –"

Harry had tuned out. His pupils dilating visibly, he leaned forward and locked gazes with the youma. "Answer me," he snarled.

"Jadeite, the Sun Shitennou," the youma replied automatically. Shaking her head free of the temporary trance Harry's emerald eyes had her in, she renewed her assault with a shriek of rage. "And he will reward me beyond dreams when I bring _you_, _your_ corpse to him! He has not expected such opposition, and –" it cut off, suddenly looking horrified at itself.

Harry smirked. '_Not expecting such opposition, hmmm? Well, I'm sure Usagi and her senshi will indulge this Jadeite as soon as they wake…_'

Harry sighed as he sliced right through one of the shells, disintegrating it. This was getting boring pretty fast. He only hoped that Luna would make her explanations brief, and that Usagi would accept it. He didn't think he could resist the temptation to fry the bloody mermaid's arse and find himself catatonic as well.

* * *

Usagi trembled behind the protective stone barrier as she listened to the erratic crashes and _sluphoom_ noises the shells made as they dissolved. One thing she couldn't understand was that Harry, Harry Potter, was here. The Harry who knocked her on her butt when he grilled her in staff work. The Harry who could manipulate lightning and to a lesser extent, fire and air. The Harry who had stepped up to his destiny and met it with a bad joke and a smirk. The Harry who seemed, in daylight and wakefulness, nothing more than the product of an overexcited imagination. 

"Kami-sama," she breathed. It _was _him. He gave off that air of power, hidden thinly behind a laughing, cheerful young man who cracked ecchi jokes and possessed a skull so thick and dense it could be used as an icebreaker. "He's _here_!"

"Yes, he is," an authoritative female voice said wryly. A small black cat with a golden crescent moon blazoned on its forehead placed its paws on Usagi's right knee, intelligent red eyes gazing into startled blue ones.

Usagi stared.

Closing her eyes, she counted to ten, and back to one, and pictured her bedroom. Obviously, she was still dreaming and the entire day was a mistake. Harry was not here, Ginny was a wistful wish for an older sister and a kindred soul, the youma was her hope that Juuban would wake up and not be so _sleepy_, and the cat was just…a cat. Cats didn't talk.

"Iie, Usagi-san, you are not dreaming," the same voice seemed to read her mind and a hint of amused exasperation tinted its tone. "Sweet Serenity, why in the name of the Moon do I have to be confronted with this kind of narrow-mindedness on this backward, barbaric planet?" it muttered.

Usagi's eyes snapped open. "Earth is _not_ a 'backward, barbaric planet'!" she bit out before clapping a hand over her mouth. '_Great, not only am I dreaming about talking cats, but I'm dreaming about responding to them and actually _taking them seriously_! I must have had too much of that lemon pie last night…._'

The cat fixed her with a stern look as its tail swayed slowly in the air. "My apologies, Usagi-san," it said. It sounded like it was speaking behind gritted teeth.

Feeling a little guilty for some strange reason she couldn't name, Usagi sighed. "Okay, assuming I'm not dreaming all of this up, what's the deal?"

The feline sat back on her haunches and surveyed the blonde with contemplative eyes. "Usagi-san, I'll have you know first of all that my memory is hardly at its best after a thousand years in stasis."

Usagi's eyes bulged somewhat unattractively. "NANI! ONE THOUSAND YEARS?"

Luna shrugged semi-nonchalantly, although she had jumped a little at Usagi's loud exclamation. "Hai, one thousand years. All I an tell you now is that one thousand years ago, there was a Kingdom on the Moon ruled by a Queen Serenity. She had one daughter, a beautiful girl who was Crown Princess to the entire Solar System. Each planet, save Earth and the Moon, had a representative fighter for the Moon Princess. These were the Sailor Senshi.

"However, there was a horrible attack that decimated the entire system, and by the time Queen Serenity had banished the evil, it was too late. Serenity was dead, the senshi were dead, her Kingdom dead. In a last act of desperation, she used the Ginzuishou, the Imperium Silver Crystal, to send all her court and her daughter's court to the future, where it was presumably safe, to live out ordinary lives where they hadn't a chance before with the evil looming over them.

"My quest is to locate all of the Sailor Senshi and find the nijizuishou, the Rainbow Crystals. When those seven crystals are assembled together, the Ginzuishou will appear, and when the Ginzuishou appears, the Princess will emerge. You see, the evil that Queen Serenity banished has returned, perhaps more powerful than ever, and we are needed to fight it."

Luna lowered her head to the ground, picked something up in her mouth and dropped it delicately on Usagi's lap. The blonde, who had been listening to Luna in somewhat of a daze, let out a startled whimper.

'_The brooch!_' she thought, heart hammering in her chest. '_How…?_' She picked it up and nearly dropped it as an unexplainable warmth flowed through her, warming her numb body. A gem resting between the upturned points of a crescent moon, four coloured stones on the compass points of the broach. It was heavy, and obviously crafted from solid gold. The one she had drawn on her copy of the periodic table.

"What is –" her voice cracked embarrassingly and she let out a nervous giggle before trying again. "What is this?"

Luna regarded her through a strangely sympathetic gaze. "You know the words…say them."

She did. Thrusting her hand in the air, brooch clenched tightly in whitened fingers, she opened her mouth.

_Playing a game of tag in rose gardens with four other young ladies, gowns floating ethereally around their slender forms as a small, dark-haired woman wearing a yellow and black dress watched them with a fond smile._

Gasping from the sudden onslaught of images, she felt something ancient and undeniable, though somehow wrong, course through her. "_Moon…_"

_Dancing in the arms of a heartbreakingly handsome young man in black armour beneath the moonlight, his sapphire gaze loving as the Earthlight threw his beautiful features into sharp relief, lips brushing gently against hers._

"_Prism…_"

_Weeping over the corpse of that same young man, his expressive eyes glazed in death, his blood still seeping into the ground before grabbing a heavy broadsword and thrusting its point through her heart, falling into darkness._

"POWER!"

Her clothes dissolved instantly before pink ribbons sprang out of nowhere to cover her modesty, wrapping around her torso to coalesce into a formfitting white bodysuit with a sailor's bib attached to the shoulders. More ribbons wrapped around her arms and legs to solidify into white gloves and shiny, red, high-heeled boots.

A pleated, dark blue skirt sprouted from the bodysuit material low on her hips, large red jewels appeared in her hair and a crescent moon insignia shone briefly golden on her forehead before a golden tiara with a single red stone covered it. A red ribbon not unlike that which was pinned to her school uniform covered her chest region and the brooch was attached securely to the knot of it. A white half-mask concealed her eyes.

She finished her transformation in a rather ridiculous salute-pose and dropped her hands immediately to try yanking the impossibly short skirt down in an effort to make it come a little lower than a few inches past her hips. The bodysuit merely stretched, her bust threatening to spill out of it if she pulled any harder. She stopped immediately, gloved hands covering her blushing face.

"Shimatta!" she groaned in mortification. "It's so _short_!"

Luna smiled slightly. "Sailor Moon, do you pledge to fight the darkness and defend the princess? Do you promise to use your powers for just reasons and aid us in our quest?"

Usagi looked mournfully at her fuku. "It's not like I have a choice, do I?" she muttered. "I have the power, I should help. Running is for cowards."

She looked up and narrowed her eyes determinedly, leaping the low stone wall easily. "HEY, UGLY!" she yelled, distracting it momentarily. The Mermaid-youma looked quizzically at her, readying yet another salvo of shells. "Yeah, I'm talking to you! I am Sailor Moon, fighter for love and justice. The park is for families and friends to enjoy themselves after a hard day of school and work! For tainting its purpose of fun and relaxation, I will punish you!" She heard Harry snort in amusement and flushed, dropping her pose again. What in the name of ramen and meatballs was she _doing_?

"Sailor Moon, eh? Never heard of you," the youma giggled girlishly before narrowing its eyes. "But by the time I'm done, there won't be anything left to hear _of_!" Sailor Moon jumped as several shells rattled past, two deflected by a bored-looking Harry and the rest evaporating harmlessly as they hit nothing but the brick path. Unfortunately, she landed direction in the path of yet another shell.

Yelping as it grazed her hip before she stumbled out of the way, she looked around for some kind of weapon. "I don't have a weapon!" she wailed before clapping her hands over her mouth in horrification. She _never _did that. Harry shoved her out of the way as yet another shell landed where she had stood.

The Mermaid-youma lifted the conch to her mouth and inhaled again. Streams of grey were vacuumed into the trumpet-shaped shell, and it was coming from the large, closed scallop-shells littering the area.

"Don't get caught by one of those!" Harry bellowed. "They trap you in it and drain your energy for the youma to collect!"

Sailor Moon nodded before tripping over a shell and sprawling to the hard ground. She frowned even as she rolled out of the way of yet another shell. She was never this clumsy, either! But she had to find a weapon now….

Grabbing a low-hanging tree branch, she tore it off completely. Wondering at her strength, she leapt the five feet to the rock and brought the branch down forcefully on the youma's head. A splintery _crack_ was heard.

The branch broke cleanly in two.

'_Oh…_damn'

"Oh…_damn_!" Harry gaped. How could he forget? Water was strong against earth, which was exactly what the branch had become when Sailor Moon had torn it from its tree. "Sailor Moon, get away!"

"I'm trying!" Sailor Moon scrabbled desperately at bank mud and pebbles before she staggered to her feet and leapt back towards land. The youma looked stupefied for a moment, feeling its head and obviously finding the huge lump growing on it.

"You, little girl," the youma hissed angrily, "will _die_!" She clapped her hands and a funnel of water formed. Sailor Moon tripped over as she tried to leap away. Seeing death loom in front of her, she was somewhat surprised to feel herself scooped up in strong arms, a red rose halting the attack.

"Thanks Ha…" she trailed off meekly as her gaze encountered a domino mask like her own and unfairly handsome features. Dark eyes crinkled slightly at her. "…rry" she finished weakly.

"I assume 'Harry' is the bored-looking man with the pigsticker?" the stranger asked wryly. "I assure you, I am not he." He set her down, and she saw that he wore a black tuxedo, a heavy black cape lined in red and a top hat. He cut a rather dashing figure, and Sailor Moon couldn't help but blush. Flashing a heart-melting smile at the star-struck senshi, he smiled slightly. "Nice speech, by the way."

Sailor Moon moaned in mortification as he leapt away from her.

Harry looked incredulously at the crazy tuxedoed wannabe throwing roses at the over-endowed youma. The dark-haired elemental slashed at a shell that got a little too close as he shook his head in disbelief. "Elektra's fire...what the hell is he gonna do? Drown it in cocktail juice? Strangle it with his bowtie? Suffocate it with that hat? Even better: kill it with bad poetry?"

"TUXEDO LA SMOKING BOMBER!" A wave of fizzling energy hurtled towards the youma, wrapping itself around its target in a suffocating black shroud. A few moments later, it exploded, leaving the demon shrieking in pain. Harry looked at the wannabe with new respect.

"Other than the fact that the attack's name was completely gay, that was pretty good."

The wannabe smiled tightly, mockingly tipping his hat in Harry's direction. Harry rolled his eyes back and cheerfully returned it with a rather rude hand gesture before blasting several shells out of existence.

The masked man in the tux threw another rose and it lodged itself securely in the youma's right eye. "Now, Sailor Moon!"

Sailor Moon looked blankly at him.

Luna's voice floated towards her. "…oon…tia…tion …"

In a sudden flash of understanding, Sailor Moon grabbed her tiara, feeding it with a well of power deep inside her. "Moon…Tiara…" As it blazed with destructive energy, she hurled it discus-style at the Mermaid-youma, who was still clawing at the rose and shrieking in pain. "ACTION!"

The youma disintegrated into greyish dust instantly. The scallop shells faded, streams of energy trailing back into the humans that had been trapped in them.

She whirled around to thank the masked man, but he had vanished. Sighing, she walked back towards Harry, who had immediately vaulted back over the stone wall and was tending to Ginny. Suddenly, a thornless rose thudded into the pathway at her feet, startling her. A tiny note was attached to it with a silk ribbon – his white bowtie.

* * *

_A good throw._

_Know that I will always be there for you, in any shape and form, Sailor Moon._

_Also, it is running that is cowardly. Retreating is not. _

_- Tuxedo Kamen.

* * *

_

Letting her transformation fall away in a whirl of ribbons and light, she stared at the note.

Her head dropping forward, she groaned. "Great. I have a stalker."

* * *

**A/N: Review, please!

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	3. What's Done is Done

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A/N: ACK! I'm _so_ sorry it took me this long to update any of my own personal fics! You see, my 'neechan Waywren Truesong and I have created a new account, Arashinobara Jikkankakyoku. Yeah, yeah, I know. Bless you and all that. /grins/ Anyway, I've been more than a little preoccupied with those fics. The link to the AJ account is on my profile in the 'homepage' link.**

**Now, thanks to everyone who reviewed, and for your patience. Special mention to KittenRebecca and Dream Catcher 3, who figured out that the quotes were from lines of William Shakespeare's plays. Speaking of which, Dream Catcher, when are you going to update your fics? I'm a huge fan of each and every one of them, after all, especially _Matchmaker Lane _and _Online Confessions of a Teenager_.

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**Soul of Fire, Heart of Ice**

**Chapter Three**

'**What's Done is Done'**

_The youma disintegrated into greyish dust instantly. The scallop shells faded, streams of energy trailing back into the humans that had been trapped in them._

_She whirled around to thank the masked man, but he had vanished. Sighing, she walked back towards Harry, who had immediately vaulted back over the stone wall and was tending to Ginny. Suddenly, a thornless rose thudded into the pathway at her feet, startling her. A tiny note was attached to it with a silk ribbon – his white bowtie. _

A good throw.

Know that I will always be there for you, in any shape and form, Sailor Moon.

Also, it is running that is cowardly. Retreating is not.

- Tuxedo Kamen.

_Letting her transformation fall away in a whirl of ribbons and light, she stared at the note._

_Her head dropping forward, she groaned. "Great. I have a stalker."_

Harry, who was looking strangely subdued as he lifted Ginny in his arms, snorted, summoning the note to him. Reading it quickly as it bobbed in front of his eyes, courtesy of a shaky wandless levitation charm, he couldn't resist cracking a wide smile. "Not only that, but you had to get one versed in semantics. He's got a point about running and retreating; think you can handle an educated guy?"

Usagi glowered at Harry. "Urusai, Harry-baka." Her expression softened noticeably as she stepped closer to him and the unconscious redhead. "What happened to her?"

Sobering quickly, Harry fixed her with a grim stare. "I'll tell you later. For now, you should get home."

Usagi looked at her watch and wailed softly. "Shimatta! It's five to five! I'm going to be so late…."

Harry shook his head. "I can get you there on time," he muttered. "That is, if you don't mind me using Legilimency on you?"

"That's like mind-reading, right?" she asked, a little apprehensive. She remembered him using it to predict her moves a few 'lessons' back.

Harry shrugged, reabsorbing the staff into his body. As it was made using his own magic, it only caused him a tiny bit of discomfort as it passed into him. "In a manner of speaking, but for now, just focus on your house, okay? I'm going to Apparate us there. It's probably going to feel a little uncomfortable, but it's the fastest way." People were beginning to stir now.

Usagi nodded, complying as emerald eyes searched her sky blue ones. A moment later, he nodded in satisfaction, juggling Ginny a little. "Got it. Luna, get over here, now both of you hold onto me – that's right – and…"

Usagi gasped as the air was squeezed out of her lungs, steel bands compressing her into a tiny, quivering mass. Black, grey and white lights flashed by before everything righted itself and she could breathe again.

"Why did you have to use Leggy-man-see?" she asked breathlessly. Despite the journey's being more than a little uncomfortable, she decided it was pretty interesting once you got used to it.

"It's _Legilimency_, and I had to get a fix on the location or I would've splinched us."

"Splingwha?"

"Splinched. I would have gotten us stuck, as in left a few body parts behind."

Usagi had a sudden vision of her hairstyle, arm and toes lying abandoned on the path. She shuddered. "Yeah…that could be a bad thing."

Harry wasn't listening. He was looking at Ginny with an increasingly horrified expression on his face. "Damn! Look, Usa-chan, go in. Is it okay if Luna stays with you? I'd feel a lot better if the two of you were together."

Usagi nodded. "Yes, but where are you going?"

"No worries. I'll meet you both at that arcade place tomorrow after school's over, okay? Now go do your homework, take a good rest, eat to keep up your energy. I need to go _now_!"

With an abrupt crack like a gunshot, both he and Ginny were gone.

Luna looked worriedly after him. "He's usually silent when he does that. I hope Ginevra-san gets better."

Usagi nodded sombrely. "Come on in, then. You're going to have to play the part of a sweet-natured stray, okay?"

Luna snorted. "And I suppose you're going to regal them with tales of how you rescued me from getting band-aids stuck to my forehead – by a few bratty kids who thought I was a witch's cat – in some alley?"

"As a matter of fact…"

"USAGI!"

* * *

"PLUTO!" Harry waded through the knee-high mists that concealed the black, infertile ground. He tried desperately to quell the rising wave of panic. "PLUTO!" 

A tall woman with knee-length dark green hair materialised out of the mists. She wore a sailor fuku much like Sailor Moon's, but her predominant colours were that of dark red and black, and her dark green hair came down a little past her knees. "You called, Harry?" she asked, leaning idly on her staff, a tall key-shaped structure with a large round-cut garnet as its only ornament. Then her red eyes fell on Ginny's convulsing form. "Oh dear."

"'Oh dear' is right," Harry snarled, trying to restrain the slender redhead as she spasmed, a flailing arm catching him sharply on his jaw. "Any bright ideas? And why in Merlin's name did you allow her to follow me to this dimension?"

Pluto was silent, but a wave of her staff lifted Ginny out of his arms before they reappeared back at the Time Gate. "You did the right thing by bringing her to me, Harry. Since we are outside the river of time, her condition will not deteriorate."

Harry wrung his hands helplessly, feeling completely useless. "I've got to track Endymion down, Plu – Setsuna," he corrected himself at the look she shot him. "Something severed her connection to fire, and she'll die if I don't get him to…ah, hell," he swore. "I'll never find him."

Pluto merely arched a brow. "You know I cannot divulge his identity, but I will tell you that to protect is in his name and nature, and that his destiny and person is closely tied to Sailor Moon."

Harry nodded sharply, his eyes strangely bright. "How long do I have?"

"As long as it takes. She will not die while she remains here."

The smile he shot her was bright and relieved. "Thank you, Setsuna."

"Selene be with you, Harry Potter," she replied.

A hazy silver mist enveloped him and he disappeared.

* * *

Kunzite massaged his temples as he spoke, eyes closed and lips white. "The risk of sounding completely idiotic and cliché notwithstanding, what the _Hell_ do you have to say for yourself?" he snarled, his trademark glacial manner discarded as he fixed Jadeite with an enraged stare. 

"So much for not disgracing the Shitennou brotherhood!" Zoicite snapped. His green eyes burned furiously in contrast to the cold expression he wore. "One of _your _creations was defeated by a teen hooker in a miniskirt with a so-called lethal tiara and a brain-dead moron in a tuxedo that threw flowers? Obviously, you are losing your touch!"

Nephrite's expression was blank. He was furious, of course, especially after Jadeite's brash declaration only a day earlier, but he decided that it had gone too far. "Kunzite, Zoicite," he said, speech clipped as he tried to control his temper. "We should _never _underestimate the enemy. You both know as well as I do that Jadeite's youma are hardly pushovers. None of us expected for there to be any kind of resistance, and while our Sun brother should have stayed to eliminate the threat before reporting to our Queen, I think he has been punished enough. Queen Beryl was hardly ecstatic at his failure, and we should be trying to think of a plan to get rid of this Sailor Moon and her companions before our honour is further sullied."

Jadeite, who had been sullenly silent through the reaming his brothers had given him, lifted his head. His face bore the fading reminders of his failure and was still drawn with pain from Beryl's punishing torture. "Our Queen has allowed me another chance at this – I must not fail," he muttered, lips white. His tone firmed. "I _will_ not fail," he snarled, before another twinge had his eyes snapping close again.

Kunzite nodded curtly, his eyes softening towards his youngest brother. "Jadeite, rest awhile before your next attempt. Your brothers and I shall create the next youma under your name, and we will watch over the battle."

Jadeite straightened up, embarrassment and anger coursing through him. "Kunzite –"

Zoicite gave his brother a hard look before his features softened a little. "Rest, Jadeite."

Nephrite remained silent, but smiled encouragingly at the Sun Shitennou.

Jadeite bowed his head. "So be it."

* * *

Luna woke suddenly from a dream full of silver light, garbled screaming and fear, her little heart beating rapidly. Still shivering convulsively from the aftermath of the vivid visions, something compelled her to look over at her charge, who was tossing and turning fitfully. Luna padded over to the girl, nuzzling her affectionately, when she caught sight of a bright, yet indistinct, silver light that shone from beneath golden bangs. As Usagi shifted with a quiet moan, Luna froze, denial and shock ricocheting within her. 

A glowing crescent moon glared almost mockingly out at the stupefied cat, and her keen ears pricked up at a whimper.

"Endymion-koishii…" Usagi's voice was tormented, breathless. "Stay – don't leave me, onegai…"

A strange calm settled around the guardian cat as her mind whirled with this new revelation. "Serenity-hime," Luna murmured, her red eyes distant. What was she to do now? Obviously, Usagi was the Princess she had been tasked to find. If she'd had any doubts upon seeing the crescent moon insignia, they vanished as she remembered only the Royal Family's glowed silver, and the name Usagi had whispered in quiet agony. And yet…

"Doushite…?" Usagi mewled faintly, beginning to breathe a little more harshly. "Come back to me, koishii…" she subsided again, and Luna's heart broke at the pain in the girl's tone even as her mind continued to work, piecing everything together.

The Ginzuishou had not yet made an appearance, so obviously, it was not her time to truly emerge. None of her court were awakened yet, and Endymion…he had obviously been reincarnated into this time, too.

The cat admitted, somewhat grudgingly, that Endymion would protect Serenity with his life and sword. He had killed for her, and died for her. If only they could _find _him! Serenity would be safe, then, but had he even awakened yet? Also, that Tuxedo Kamen character! He existed in the Silver Millennium, that much she knew – he had an aura to him that implied his soul was an old one. What were his intentions? Were they, as he claimed, simply to protect Sailor Moon? Or did he have an ulterior motive?

"So many questions," Luna murmured, nuzzling her charge reassuringly. The crescent moon's glow had faded with the nightmare, and Usagi slumbered contentedly. "So few answers." It seemed that this revelation had triggered something in her, and knowledge filled in the blanks that one thousand years in stasis had wrought upon her memory.

Luna came to a conclusion, and had she human shoulders, she would have squared them resolutely. "Let's see if I still have an alternate form," she muttered, and jumped off the bed. Watching her princess sleep on, she felt loathe to leave her. For a moment, indecision filled her once more. "Just do it here," she sighed to herself, and began to change.

The crescent moon on her brow glowed intensely as limbs lengthened, fur disappeared and grew longer, her tail was sucked back into her spine with an almost audible _shloop_ and after another few moments, a trembling young woman stood where the black feline had previously been.

Luna raised a shaking hand to feel her face. Human. She looked at the hand itself. Human. She looked down to see that she was clothed in her trademark sundress, a yellow and black creation that left her slender calves and arms bare. Human, all human.

Tears coursed down her face and Luna wiped them roughly away. She had not anticipated that reversion to her true form would bring out such an onslaught of emotions within her. She had always been just a slight bit more detached from them in feline form.

Sitting carefully down on the bed, Luna inhaled deeply. Her senses were a little duller, and she missed her feline ears, eyes and nose, but as she drew trembling fingers gently through her Princess's hair, she felt an ache in her chest that told her it was all worth it.

In human form, she could fight to defend her princess. She would locate and awaken the other senshi so that this tense charade would be over and her Princess would be safe once more. When Sailor Moon fought, Luna would be there watching her back.

"My life for the Princess's," she swore. The benevolent moon bore silent witness to her oath. A cat once more, Luna curled up in the curve of her Princess's arms and closed her eyes.

* * *

Sweat beaded his brow as he trudged wearily onwards, breathing harsh and laboured. Harry raised glazed emerald eyes dazedly up before his head slumped and he trudged onwards again. 

He was walking through the second plane; the plane of subconscious and Dream. Somewhere, his body was still sitting in meditation in an alley full of refuse and darkness between a cheerfully lit arcade and a small antique store. His subconscious, however, was tired from fighting off nightmares and demons from the past, as well as haggard with depression over some particularly sad memories.

Harry felt the tug again, and followed it blindly, heart sinking as he did so. He could walk for an eternity and not find Endymion – he didn't even know what the man looked like, for Salazar's sake!

_Tousled black hair like raven's wing_, the mists around him whispered in response to his train of thought. They sounded strangely wistful. _Sapphire eyes like a clear midnight sky… and beauty, oh, the beauty of a thousand sunsets, of an eagle in flight, of a sword's cold glitter. With skin of bronze and the bearing of a God is my Endymion._

"Who are you?" Harry shouted. This _was_ the land of subconscious – perhaps someone who knew Endymion in both the past and present could point him in the right direction. "How do you know?"

That was when She appeared, with hair of moonlit silver, eyes of solemn cerulean and a grace whispering royalty. Harry took a step back, emerald gaze disbelieving. "Usa-chan?"

She smiled softly, sadly. "Iie, Raiden-ouji. Some call me a memory, some call me a ghost; most call me Serenity-hime of the Silver Millennium."

"My name is Harry," he told her flatly, insides writhing uncomfortably as he turned the name over in his mind. "Harry Potter. I am not a prince, but I'm looking for one. I don't suppose you'd know where he is, would you?"

Serenity smiled in spite of herself. "That I do," she murmured.

When no more information was forthcoming, Harry made an impatient noise. "Well?"

The Princess's responding look was reproachful. "Raiden-sama, much as I love you as my brother, you forget yourself."

Harry was rapidly beginning to lose his temper. "Look, lady Serenity or whomever you are. I need to find Endymion so I can get him to re-establish the link between Ginny and _his_ Earth. She's _dying_, _Princess_, and if you want to play your stupid games then you can, but come out and say it instead of beating about the bush. I don't have time to waste on people who are misers with information that can save a life! The life of my _wife_!"

Serenity blinked, but that was all the surprise she showed. "So you _did_ marry her in this lifetime."

Harry sighed, anger ebbing away as worry and sadness replaced it. "Please, Princess, a hint."

She nodded sombrely. "It is in his name and his nature to protect." Her eyes were kind. "Look for the Earth Protector, and the Protector of Selene's child. Look to the roses, for they carry a message."

Harry's eyes widened in sudden comprehension and he opened his mouth to reply before he doubled over in surprised pain. His ribs throbbed from the kick he had been delivered, and Serenity's face grew alarmed. "Awake, Raiden-sama! Someone is attacking your body!"

Harry wheezed as another kick landed on his chest. "My name – ugh – is _Harry_!"

"Raiden, awaken!" Serenity cried, her composure disintegrating as she watched an angry cut appear on Harry's cheek before a rip appeared in his trenchcoat and golden blood sprang forth. "Raiden-sama!"

"I would if I could, believe me," Harry shouted back hoarsely before his eyes rolled up into his head and he vanished.

The Princess ran towards where he had laid, a splotch of golden blood evaporating in a shower of sparks. She stopped then, allowing herself a small smile before she faded away once more.

In the dark alley, two would-be muggers stared with confusion at their victim's golden blood.

It was then that Harry's eyes snapped open and the sclera were gold, swallowing both irises and pupils. A wordless snarl escaped his throat, and a silent nova of pure light exploded outwards from his battered body, incinerating his attackers.

Seconds later, pedestrians blinked and wondered exactly what they'd forgotten, and Harry's eyes drifted close again.

* * *

"Ser – Usagi-chan!" Luna bawled into the sleeping girl's ear. "Wake _up_, or you'll be late for _school_!" Seeing that the girl didn't so much as stir, the cat closed her eyes, prayed that she wouldn't be tried for treason or assault on her Royal Highness's body when the Princess finally regained her memories, and bit down hard on aforementioned Princess's earlobe. 

"ITAI!" Usagi shot out of bed with a shriek. "Kuso, what did you do that for, Luna-san!" she wailed.

"Mind your language, Usagi!" Luna told her primly, her worry fading a little as amusement set in. "You overslept: your alarm went off nearly forty minutes ago; your mother came in twice and it's nearly ten past eight already!"

"Kami-sama!" Usagi wailed, tumbling out of bed and landing on her rear with an ungraceful thud. "I've never overslept before – what's happening to ME-ee-EE-ee-EE?"

Luna sweatdropped sheepishly as Usagi darted in and out of the shower, pulled on a fresh skirt and blouse and did up her ribbon, finally fixing her new brooch on the knot, all within the space of under ten minutes. Grabbing her hair ribbons, she glanced at her reflection in the mirrors and seemed to sway with indecision for a moment, but a single glance at the clock had her shrieking further and her ankle-length hair was left unbound after a few hasty brushes. "I am going to be so LATE!"

Luna could only watch helplessly as her oblivious Princess dashed from the house, hair a banner of gold streaming behind her slender figure, ribbons fluttering to the ground as Tsukino Ikuko, Usagi's mother, ran out to the porch after her daughter, waving her lunchbox at her. "Usagi-chan!" she cried after the distant figure. The indigo-haired woman sighed in resignation as Usagi's mane of sun-gold hair vanished behind a street corner. "You forgot your bento," she finished softly.

Meowing and rubbing herself up against Ikuko's bare legs comfortingly, Luna made a swift grab for the lunchbox and took off running down the street, following the scent of moonlight and wildflowers. Ikuko stared at her now-empty hand, and then the black cat running away, bunny-embossed pink lunchbox held firmly in her jaws. "That is one strange neko," Ikuko muttered quietly before retreating hastily into the house before anything else happened.

Meanwhile, Usagi's flight was something to behold. Something increased her speed and strength, enabling her to run swiftly, gracefully. Pedestrians turned to watch the young teen's passage among them, eyes awed as they beheld an angel, golden hair rippling in the slipstream of her mad dash.

Forced to pause at a traffic intersection, Usagi shifted impatiently from foot to foot as the lights stubbornly refused to change. The blonde was surprised, to say the least, when a sleek black motorcycle drew up and a black and chrome helmet was tossed to her. "Get on," Chiba Mamoru told her, glancing at his watch. "I can get you there in a couple of minutes."

She looked at him haughtily, drawing herself up to her full height of five feet two inches. "I don't need your –"

"Pity? Help? Generous gestures? I'm trying to be nice here, Odango, and the warning bell would be ringing at this time. I've got a study block first period, so I don't need to be there until ten." He offered her a gloved hand.

Usagi bit her lip and coiled her hair hastily before putting the helmet on over it. With her luck, her hair would get stuck in his back wheel or something. "I owe you one, then," she muttered as she accepted the hand up before wrapping her arms reluctantly about his waist. "I didn't know you could drive," she grumbled into his back as she felt the motorcycle hum into motion.

Mamoru shrugged; Usagi could feel the muscles flex and she blushed faintly. "Despite sounding completely stupid and out-of-a-movie, there are a lot of things you don't know about me, and I know I don't know too much about you either, Odango. Besides, I only just got this sweetheart yesterday."

"Will you _quit_ calling me that, you baka?" Usagi demanded, her blush fading abruptly. "It's a cool-looking bike, though," she admitted grudgingly.

"I chose it; what did you expect?" she could practically hear his smirk, and scowled.

"Well, if the hideous jacket I am currently leaning on is any indication, I expected far worse," her tone was deliberately biting.

"Gah…I'll have you and the rest of the world know that I _like_ this 'hideous' jacket, and it is _not_ hideous."

"It's cheap, it's a horrible cut and bulky, hiding your nice figure like that, and the colour doesn't suit your complexion."

He actually snickered. "So I have a 'complexion'? I'm touched, Odango. And what's this about my figure? You make me sound like a girl."

Usagi's head shot up and her mouth opened and closed before she let her forehead fall back against his back, tightening her grip around his stomach to the point where he worried he'd suffer asphyxiation. "Urusai, Mamoru-baka," she snarled. "Kami, you are _such_ an arrogant _jerk_!"

"Arigatou, Tsukino-san," he grinned broadly. He didn't realise just how amusing the petite blonde could be. Their usual encounters consisted mainly of their colliding, her 'accidentally' throwing a potentially maiming device at Mamoru followed by a scathing comment from him or Mamoru greeting her with a twitty remark when she walked into the arcade followed by a snippy one from her, and more bickering before she, resigned, finally turned on the waterworks with wild abandon.

The ride was exhilarating despite their sniping, and she scrambled off the bike when they reached the school gates, almost throwing the spare helmet at him. "Arigatou, Mamoru-baka!" she called over her shoulder.

Mamoru watched her enter the building, clenching his left hand into a fist as the floaty feeling he'd been riding on when he saw her faded away slightly, the humorous grin on his lips dying. He didn't know why he had offered her a ride in the first place, but the way his torso still tingled from her touch gave him a clue to an answer he did not want to admit to anyone, especially himself. Forcing himself to relax, he put the helmet Usagi had used back into its compartment before mounting the bike again and driving away. Motoki's arcade was open, he knew, and he would find a willing ear and caffeine fix there.

* * *

A redheaded teen entered the alley, cheerfully depositing a dark green garbage bag in an aluminium can before something groaned and she spun around warily. As green eyes landed on a dirty, golden-smeared face and a limp body, Furuhata Unazuki screamed.

* * *

Motoki looked concernedly at Mamoru, who was nursing his customary cup of coffee and gazing into it with a dark expression on his face. "You blacked out, you say?" 

"Hai, and I woke up in my apartment and it's freaking me out because _I don't know how I got there_! I was in the library checking out a psychology reading requirement when it happened, then everything just went hazy and there was this pain…."

"You should go see a doctor about what happened, Mamoru. I'm sure they'll be able to help you."

"No, you don't understand. I stopped by the library earlier today to ask the librarian if she'd seen me do anything the previous day, she looked at me like I was a moron – or just a piece of dung she'd scraped off her shoe – and said that I had stumbled, dropped the book as if it weren't a 'valuable instrument imparting knowledge to all who desired' and ran out of there like there was no tomorrow."

Motoki bit his lip, trying not to laugh. "Nani? I thought nothing could ever make you mistreat a book, especially a nonfiction reading."

Mamoru scowled darkly and was about to retort when the faint jingle of bells indicated another visitor. Motoki, more to escape his younger best friend's thunderous frown than anything else, looked up with a smile that froze in place as he spotted his sister's panicked face. "'Zuki-chan, what's the matter?"

"There's a man – he's hurt – in the alley back there!" she yelled hysterically. "He's got this huge cut on the side of his face and I'm sure there's more to it than that because his coat's all wet and I think it's blood but it's not red it's _gold_!"

Mamoru, Motoki, and a few other patrons made a beeline for the exit. "Call an ambulance, somebody!" the arcade owner shouted.

"Done," a pale-faced woman responded, tucking her cell phone back into her purse.

"Domo arigatou, Otani-san," Motoki called over his shoulder.

They slowed to a jog as they neared the mouth of the alley, and then to a walk as they entered it. A shouted plea from Motoki's sister had him doubling back reluctantly. Mamoru, on the other hand, pushed through the other men who had responded to Unazuki's hysterical claim, and knelt down next to the limp form lying squarely in the middle of the alley.

Utilising all the knowledge he'd learned in first aid as well as the apprenticeship of sorts he had taken over the summer, Mamoru took the man's pulse while the other hand lifted an eyelid carefully to check, once he had confirmed the man was alive, whether or not he was suffering a concussion. Telling the others to look for an identification of some kind, Mamoru swept a finger across some of the golden liquid oozing steadily out of the shallow slash on the man's cheek, inspecting it carefully.

Suddenly the wrist he was holding tensed, the hand clenching into a fist. Mamoru found himself staring into darkened emerald eyes, the pupils so dilated that the green was but a thin rim of green around them. Bloody lips laughed, a horrible choking sound, before a staff materialised in the man's hand and pointed at the men standing behind Mamoru. "Thanks," he coughed, "but no thanks."

Mamoru blinked. "Nani –?" Quite frankly, this lunatic was beginning to freak him out. Maybe if he moved away _slowly_…

"You don't want to know." The man's breathing was harsh and laboured, but the next word he spoke caused a strange flash followed by something that tingled unpleasantly across Mamoru's skin. "_Obliviate._"

* * *

**A/N: Review? Please? Pretty, pretty please with a senshi on top?

* * *

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